Randy Orton was the original opponent for Roman Reigns at SummerSlam but that plan went out of the window when Orton’s back injury was more serious than originally thought.
In fact, during his promo on Friday night, Riddle announced that Orton would be needing surgery, something that was rumored a few days before, effectively taking out the Viper for at least the rest of 2022.
The former multi-time champion last wrestled on the May 20 Smackdown when he and Riddle lost the Raw Tag Team titles to The Usos in a title unification match.
His injury comes at a bad time for WWE as they also lost big fan favorite Cody Rhodes to a torn pec earlier this month.
Orton celebrated his 20th year in WWE this year and has been going at full speed ever since he returned from a month off in August 2021.
